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11-Year-Old Propositioned At Local Library

Police say the man approached the 11-year-old, gave her his telephone number and told her to call him.

Braddock, TX -- In this day and age, are your kids safe anywhere? You may be shocked where a local family says a man approached an 11-year-old girl. Police say the man approached the 11-year-old, gave her his telephone number and told her to call him. All this happened in a very public place, surrounded by watchful adults.

"It's kind of like throwing a raw steak into a pool of sharks," says father John Hill. You've probably never thought of a library that way, and that's exactly why Hill is warning other parents.

"You don't know who else is in there." That's what Hill found out on Wednesday, when he took his daughter and her friend to the Braddock library.

"I noticed this guy wasn't pulling any books off the shelves. He wasn't interested in what he was looking at. He was looking left to right more often and hanging out where younger kids were at."

So Hill sat down where he could keep an eye on the girls at their computers. "It wasn't five minutes later she was over there handing me a little piece of paper saying some guy put this in front of me and said call me and then he just left." His daughter's friend showed him the piece of paper. "It was a number and a name."

Hill told the librarian. "She said something like that happened just a few days ago." The librarian called police.

"They said she did the right thing. She went right to an adult."Still, it was a scary experience, and one Hill doesn't want any other child or parent to go through. "Don't just drop your kids off at the library and think they're going to be okay. The librarians aren't babysitters. Even though I was vigilant and paying attention, it still happened." Deputies say they know who this man is, but there's nothing they can do because he committed no crime. They say he has no criminal record. Hill took this opportunity to talk to his daughter again about staying safe in public. He reminded her to tell a trusted adult immediately if someone makes her feel uncomfortable. He hopes other parents will have the same talk with their kids.

Braddock, TX -- Braddock County deputies are investigating the report of a man inappropriately touching and exposing himself to a 10-year-old girl in Braddock, authorities said.

At about 8:50 p.m. Tuesday, shortly before the Braddock County Public Library in the 100 block of Kemellia Ave. closed, the girl was looking at books when a man allegedly grabbed and squeezed her buttocks, police said. The girl walked away to another aisle and then saw the same man with his shorts pulled down and his shirt lifted, exposing himself.

The victim told her mother, who called the sheriff's department.

The girl was not harmed.

The man was described as white, in his late 20s, standing about 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing about 200 pounds. He had short, kinky light brown hair and was wearing large glasses, red athletic shorts with white stripes, a multi-colored button down shirt and brown Thom McAnn shoes.

The Braddock County Public Library System distributes a brochure about the dangers of public places.

"We encourage people to pay attention to the fact that we are public, and as a system, we design our libraries to allow for maximum security, both for our staff and for our customer base," said library assistant director Inez Mitchell. Director Kelly Millis could not be reached for comment.

Within 24 hours of Tuesday's reported exposure case, the library will receive a detailed incident report.

If warranted, the library will enhance their security measures. Right now, the library has one unarmed security guard on site.